When Red Dot United (RDU) founding member Liyana Dhamirah picked up Ravi Philemon’s call in 2020, she didn’t know it would change the course of her life.
Speaking candidly on Mothership’s Help Desk, Liyana recalled that she was comfortably settled at the time, having remarried, moved into a new home, and was raising a newborn. “I was in a good place. I didn’t want to rock the boat,” she admitted. But Ravi’s request—to help form a new political party—resonated deeply with her.
“It’s in my nature to be restless when things are too comfortable,” she shared. “A part of me always feels called to contribute to society in a meaningful way.”
That part ultimately won. After consulting her husband and children, she said yes. Within a tight deadline—just eight days before the 2020 election was called—Liyana became a founding member of RDU. At that point, she thought she would remain a volunteer, much like she had during her previous experience helping Ravi in 2015 during his campaign in Hong Kah North. The decision to step up as a candidate would come later, when it became clear that RDU needed people willing to contest in Jurong GRC, where they would eventually go up against then-Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s team.
“Back then, nobody else even seemed willing to step into Jurong. We didn’t want to let it be a walkover,” she explained.
Despite her political journey today, Liyana’s story is deeply rooted in hardship. Earlier in the interview, she opened up emotionally about the darkest chapter of her life: experiencing homelessness while pregnant, separated from her two young sons who were living across the border in Johor with her mother.
Choking up at one point, Liyana said, “What was tougher for me was not being homeless. What was tougher was being separated from my kids.”
She described how she tried to shield her sons from the truth, framing their visits to her tent by Sembawang Beach as “staycations by the sea”. She filled their weekends with beach games and activities, trying to create happy memories instead of exposing them to the harsh reality she was facing.
When she eventually published her book Homeless in 2019, she built up the courage to give it to her sons, then teenagers, to read. The moment was nerve-wracking. But their reaction was heartwarming: her eldest son thanked her, saying, “Thank you, Mama, for protecting us. Before reading the book, all I remembered was that it was fun staying by the beach. I never realised we were homeless.”
Today, Liyana’s story continues to inspire many. Positive comments flooded in under Mothership’s YouTube video and Facebook post, with viewers praising her bravery, resilience, and authenticity.
“You can really feel her sincerity,” one commenter wrote. “Respect to her for turning pain into purpose,” another said.
Several others expressed admiration for her decision to step into politics despite her personal hardships, noting that her lived experiences made her a genuine voice for the marginalised.
Reflecting on her unlikely journey from living in a tent to contesting in a general election, Liyana said simply, “Life is strange. If you had asked me ten years ago, I would have said no, never. But here I am.”
For her, the decision to join politics wasn’t about ambition—it was about giving back.
“It’s not about us as individuals,” she said. “It’s about the values we stand for, and the hope we can offer.”